This week, I joined the incredible and determined Joy Harrison and other parents, cycling 118 inspirational miles from Salisbury Cathedral to 10 Downing Street to raise awareness of the plight of thousands of UK children and their families, when they are unexpectedly thrown into unelected home education.
“[Unelected] home education is unsustainable, as it has placed a huge amount of stress upon our family affecting every aspect of our lives.” These are the words of midwife, Joy Harrison, who has been home educating her primary school-aged son since 2023. With no training, no desire to fulfil this role, and a host of usual daily responsibilities to fulfil, she was left with no choice than to prioritise her son, and look on with despair as the rest of her and her family’s lives started to fall apart.
This increasingly common tribulation in the UK is due to an education system buckling under huge demands, unable to meet the array of needs of increasing numbers of SEN children: In England, there are 92,000 SEN state school places, but these already accommodating 100,000 pupils. Additionally, SEN numbers are increasing each year by around 0.5%. In England there are now over 17million children with acknowledged SEN.
This supply and demand mismatch has created an emergency situation where parents are being turned to when there is simply no place suitable and available for a child to go to school, stretching many families to the limit.
I have previously been forced into home educating and have firsthand experience of the unending stress and exhaustion. However, through my work with neuroplasticity therapies (originally using these with my own son), I am very certain that these therapies could play a crucial role in alleviating the severity of the current UK SEN situation. It is incredibly empowering to have interventions which can positively change the trajectory of a child’s life, e.g. reducing anxiety, enhancing learning abilities, making friendships with ease, etc. Neuroplasticity therapies have the potential to enhance the quality of life for many children with SEN (and their families).
A 2024 government report found that “Teachers particularly want more training in teaching pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND)”.
It has always struck me (and many others) as odd that a profession which is all about learning, which happens in the brain, does not focus more on how the brain learns and then seek to translate that knowledge into real life practice (pedagogy).
A personal wish from our epic journey, is for teachers to receive training in brain learning and development so that pedagogy becomes neuroscience-informed, and, really importantly, so that our children flourish (in all attributes) as a result of this – so families like Joy’s can stop fighting and just get on with peaceful and happy living.
Neuroplasticity Therapies.
Discover the wide range of sensory, balance, movement, lifestyle therapies incorporated under neuroplasticity therapies.
